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NESCIENCE versus PRESCIENCE : 



A POETICAL REVIEW 



"AN INQUIRY INTO THE POPULAR NOTION 



UNORIGINATED, INFINITE, AND ETERNAL PRESCIENCE." 



WITH ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES, AND AN APPENDH. 



BY ANTI-EMPIRICUS. 



" Vain Wisdom all, and false Philosophy !"— Milton, Par, Lost, B. ii, 1. 565. 

" Having become dead in law, it devolves on The Poet, as his property, who 
may take him and deal with him as with some old Egyptian hero ; that is to say, 
embowel and embalm him for posterity." — Pope, Preface to Dunciad. 



LONDON : 

MASON, 14, CITY ROAD; AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW. 

OXFORD: C. RICHARDS. 

1844. 

Price One Shilling. 



NESCIENCE versus PRESCIENCE : 



A POETICAL REVIEW 



"AN INQUIRY INTO THE POPULAR NOTION 



UNORIGINATED, INFINITE, AND ETERNAL PRESCIENCE.' 



WITH ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES, AND AN APPENDIX. 



BY ANTI-EMPIRICUS. XW.T.tUw,*^. 



" Vain Wisdom all, and false Philosophy V— Milton, Par. Lost, B. ii, 1. 565, 

•" Having become dead in law, it devolves on The Poet, as his property, who 
may take him and deal with him as with some old Egyptian hero ; that is to say, 
embowel and embalm him for posterity." — Pope, Preface to Dunciad, 



LONDON : 

MASON, 14, CITY ROAD ; AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
1844. 



-PR sk ^ 
" eft* 



The following Poem was written several years since, and has been 
handed about in M.S. among the author's acquaintance. It is now 
printed, for the purpose of meeting the wishes of those who have soli- 
cited copies ; and to avoid the labour of transcription, which divers 
promises would otherwise have imposed. He regards the book reviewed, 
as the most amusing specimen of Philosophical Empiricism with which 
he is acquainted. He has endeavoured, with the assistance of Rhyme, 
to set its absurdities in a striking and instructive light, and so to render it 
useful, as an example of the eccentricities of human opinion, and as a 
warning against the abuse of Reason, and the affectation of Philosophy. 
Thus have we seen an insect, worthless when living, become an object 
interesting for its beauty and rarity when dead, by being enclosed, and 
as it were enshrined, in transparent amber. 



\ 



NESCIENCE versus PRESCIENCE 
&c. 



Agnostos wrote a curious book on "Prescience," 
Wishing to fix some limits to Omniscience 1 ; 
That Infinite our faith no more might stumble, 
Nor Mystery our pride of reason humble ; 
That speculative souls no more might sigh, 
" Such knowledge is too wonderful and high:" 
All that's the most Divine, 'twas his intention, 
To lower down to human comprehension. 

The plan was specious, if not wholly new ; 
And mighty benefits must needs accrue. 
What prospects open to ingenuous youth ; 
A royal road to universal truth ! 
The ne plus ultra is attained at once, 
And all made easy to the greatest dunce. 
The tree of knowledge has Agnostos search 1 d, 
And sees himself upon its summit perch' d ; 
While to the blundering crowds below he cries, 
u Peruse my book, and 'twill unclose your eyes : 
Come follow me, and climb the blest abodes ; 
By my assistance ye shall all be gods." 

Thus, like some Doctor on a public stage, 
With worst diseases offering to engage ; 
To whose famed nostrum Death himself must yield, 
Give back the prey, and quit at once the field ; 
Some self-praised stranger, sent to bless mankind, 
To cure the sick and to restore the blind ; 
For his own talents does this author vouch, 
And waits our intellectual sight to couch. 
Error in every form, from every place, 
World without end, shall his performance chace ; 
All ignorance before him shall retire, 
And nothing more be left us to enquire 2 . 



This maxim first, his system brings to view ; 
" What is mysterious never can be true." 
From whence this rule proceeds — let all attend — 
" Reject whatever you don't comprehend 3 : 
To your own understandings always trust 4 ; 
And if they clash with Scripture, why — they must ; 
'Tis very well when Holy writ agrees 
With what the mind intuitively sees ; 
Or when it will admit of a construction 
Consistent with each rational deduction 5 : 
But if I am to yield implicit faith 6 , — 
If I must credit all the Bible saith, 
And bow to its authority alone, 
My reason then no longer is my own. 
'Tis godlike Reason's office, as chief guide, 
Upon our creed and practice to decide : 
Even Revelation, as I've clearly shewn 7 , 
From Reason her authority has drawn : 
Till Reason's imprimatur has been given, 
Weak and invalid are the words of Heaven. 
And shall we, while our Reason's sun shines bright, 
Prefer a borrowed and imperfect light ? 
For your own faculties have more respect, 
Nor basely prostrate thus your intellect 8 ." 
Such was the system which Agnostos taught ; 
And this he took for " liberty of thought"! 
Thus bold Socinus, in a former age 9 , 
Renounced the mysteries of the Sacred page ; 
From Inspiration's teaching turned aside, 
And set up Reason as a surer guide ; 
Explaining even the Creator's glories, 
By Aristotle and the Categories. 

Such speculations, I beg leave to say, 
Hardly become a creature formed of clay ; 
Though intellectual, fallen ; — and if you will, 
Of high account ; — but there be higher still. 
O, how shall I the mighty contrast draw, 
'Twixt our presumption, and their sacred awe ? 
While those bright hosts who skirt the Almighty's throne, 
Dazzled with lustre brighter than their own, 
Bow down in worship, trembling as they gaze, 
Veiling their eyes in that o'erwhelming blaze ; — 
While at God's presence even demons cower, 
Knowing full well the thunder of his power 10 ;— 
Vain men who would be wise pretend to see, 
Quite clearly, what he must or must not be ; 



Maim his perfections, contradict his word, 

Nor tremble at " the terror of the Lord !" 

Religion ! Source of light ! by thee are given 

Those thoughts and hopes that lift the soul to heaven ; 

And we that sight shall through thy guidance prove, 

Which wraps in ecstacy the blest above. 

But our Philosophers thy help decry ; 

And, scorning thee, their own inventions try : 

And since to earth they are resolved to keep, 

Their proper motion being, like snails, to creep 11 , 

All heavenward aspiration they condemn, 

And strive to bring the Almighty down to them ; 

To place him on more equal terms with man : — 

Such was our Author's philosophic plan. 

According to this Sage's theory, 
Not God himself the future can foresee : 
His wisdom's not so great but that it may, 
And does increase, and that too every day 12 . 
The prophecies, though penned so long before 
The event, are shrewd conjectures ; nothing more ; 
Save in those cases where what is to be 
Has been before hand fixed infallibly 13 . 
The most direct responses, we are told, 
Accorded to the favoured saints of old, 
Were only l< God's opinion on the case/' 
Importing what might probably take place : 
Displaying, without doubt, great penetration ; 
But not conveying certain information 14 . 
The w r orld will one day end, the Bible shows ; 
But when 'twill be, not even its Maker knows 15 : 
And some events through length of time, perchance, 
May have escaped his boundless cognizance 16 ! 
In short, on these and other subjects, God 
His whole amount of knowledge has bestowed ; 
Of his own purposes the total sum, 
All that is past, and all that is to come 17 . 

Upon these doctrines, rest our Author's claim 
To notice, and his hope of future fame. 
The happiness he seems the most to prize, 
Is that of being deemed both bold and wise. 
Wiser than Saints and Prophets must he be 
Who could establish this discovery ; 
Bold all must own him who his book have read, 
" For fools rush in where angels fear to tread 1S ." 
O wondrous creature ! vastly clever man ! 
Who thus presum'st thy Maker's mind to scan, 



6 

And would'st persuade us that, beyond all doubt, 

God by thy searching is at length found out. 

Thou would'st have liked, it seems, to take thy fill 

Of speculation on the infernal hill, 

With Milton's devils, when they did dispute 

On "fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute 19 ". 

Hadst thou been present, such a flood of light 

Thou would'st have shed as must have set them right ; 

But as they could not that advantage boast, 

They "found no end, in wandering mazes lost!" 

Ah ! hadst thou blazed amidst the infernal walls, 

Or ruled the roast in Pandemonium's halls 

Ah ! hadst thou but held forth in that divan, 

Would they have ended but where they began ? 

But though thou may'st be for that college fit, 

Even as Professor in its chair to sit, 

As far as high aspiring thoughts can make thee 20 ^ 

Yet for a fallen angel none will take thee. 

Rather I view thee as some reasoning mole, 

Pondering within its philosophic soul, 

All natures and the properties of each ; 

Guessing how far an " angel's ken " might reach : 

While to his fellow moles he clearly shews, 

That men can't see an inch beyond their nose ; 

And that their strange pretences to descry 

Objects afar, and suns and stars on high, 

Are nothing better than a bare-faced fiction, 

That carries with it its own contradiction : 

Concluding that his own imperfect glimmer, 

Than which, 'tis said, no twilight can be dimmer^ 

Is perfect day — complete illumination — 

Surpassed by nothing in the whole creation ! 

So purblind are thy notions, O Agnostos ! 

And then, how modestly dost thou accost us ! 

Of thy disciples the important squad 

Is styled " the army of the living God," 

And all besides " uncircumcised Philistines," 

Not worthy to be looked upon as Christians 21 ; — - 

Mere hypocrites, pretending to receive 

A doctrine which, in fact, they don't believe 22 . 

No doubt ye are the people : — Wisdom's morn 

Ne'er dawned upon mankind till you were born, 

And even the Church, ere rose our Author's light, 

Lay wrapped in darkness and Egyptian night ! 

Though Heaven's prerogative thou would'st dispute, 

The Testaments, both Old and New, confute, 



Oppose the creed of martyrs and of sages, 

And contradict the wisdom of all ages ; 

Thy towering mind in its presumption strong, 

Suspected not that though couldst e'er be wrong. 

No lurking diffidence hast thou betrayed ; 

No deference to old opinions paid ; 

But ex-cathedra thou pronouncest still. 

The Pope himself not more infallible. 

Around, thy fulminations thickly fly ; 

And on thy page stand " names of blasphemy :" 

With pride inflated, frog-like dost thou swell, 

And set thee up for the world's oracle. 

When philosophic Ignorance we see 
In marriage joined to fulsome Vanity, 
(Such union is indeed a thing of course, 
Nor will the parties ever seek divorce :) 
The offspring is some daring speculation, 
Or metaphysical hallucination ; 
Some pigmy paradox, much given to lying, 
Or Atheist creed, all heaven and earth defying ; 
Whose parents view with fondness and with pride, 
The form that shocks and sickens all beside. 

Hail, true Philosophy ! the Muse would not 
Of thee indulge one disrespectful thought : 
Thy aid she seeks, her flight 'tis thine to guide ; 
From thy rich stores her wants are still supplied : 
By thee forsaken she would droop her wing, 
Or wander a forlorn and useless thing. 
At insults offered thee her anger glows, 
And her keen shafts are pointed at thy foes ; 
While of those foes she deems the worst to be 
Those who their own inventions charge on thee ; — 
Pseudo-philosophers, impostors sage : — 
With them the Muse unceasing war would wage. 
Their scientific prate and pedant air 
Disgust the wise and make the vulgar stare : 
Yet though they have thee 'on their lips, 'tis plain, 
These dunces do but " take thy name in vain. " 

Agnostos, influenced by the inspiring hope 
That his rare talents might have freer scope, 
Determined that he would no longer plod 
In Orthodoxy's dull and beaten road ; 
In which of green there does not grow one splinter ; 
'Tis like a polar and perpetual winter : 
'Tis barren all ; no harvest will it yield 
Of wit and humour ; it presents no field 



8 

For sportive fancy's free luxuriation, 

Or metaphysical investigation ; 

No room for calculations arithmetic, 

For process analytic or synthetic : 

No data, for computing chance, appear ; 

No soundings of profundities are here : 

No art or science will it ever better, 

Nor add to literature a single letter ; 

In short one's mental appetite it mocks : — 

Thus he describes the doctrine orthodox 23 . 

Within such limits could his genius stay ? 

No ; he preferred a very different way. 

How, like an eagle, he the clouds explores ! 

How, like his own " Contingency,^ he soars I 

How bold and brilliant was the track he chose f 

What flowers of rhetoric round his path he strows ; 

What stores of learning to his task he brings, 

While talking of " the hypostasis of things 24 :'' 

Of " Prescience that extends to all the past 25 , 

And of a "Now that cannot always last 26 !" 

He tells us that " a fixed anticipation 

Supposes an infallible causation 27 ;" 

And that it is not possible to fly 

Beyond the bounds of possibility 28 . 

Vast armies of " contingencies " he sees r 

That buzz and swarm like locusts, or like bees ; 

Darkening the world with their portefltious flight 29 ; 

But, till arrived, invisible to sight, 

Because they are " Contingencies in re 30 ;' 9 

Subjects of " Abstract Possibility 31 ;*' — 

A queen who rules with arbitrary sway 

The flitting myriads who her laws obey. 

But her dominion's short : Time lifts the curtain, 

And then these vagrant natures grow more certain t 

They spring to light and take a fixed abode, 

Leaving their comrades jostling on the road ; 

Who in their turn their sovereign's power defy, 

These sturdy rebels are so bold and sly 32 . 

At length (the usual fate of kings and queens, 

When they to strong rebellion yield the reins) 

Her sceptre broken and her sway made void, 

Poor Possibility is quite destroyed 33 . 

'Tis true, I grant, that she revives again, 

And then enjoys an everlasting reign 34 . 

Such wonders, so Agnostos says, are done ; 

To shew there's something new beneath the sun. 



Yet e'en himself our author has surpassed 
In the next instance, which I mention last : 
Resolved at once all meaning to " outstep, " 
And Contradictions barriers to o'erleap, 
Assisted by his favorite theory, 
He even annihilates nonentity 35 ! 

Thy book as much, Agnostos, gives offence 
To sober thought, good taste, and common sense, 
As it oppugns the Scriptures and the faith 
Which thou art bound to hold and teach till death. 
If thou hadst studied in sound Reason's college, 
Thou wouldst not make Omniscience grow in knowledge ; 
Nor fancy Wisdom Infinite enriched 
With new perceptions, from its creatures fetched 36 . 
Of " God's acquirements " thou, forsooth, hast spoken 37 , 
And of his promises revoked or broken 3S ; 
Of Heaven's resolve, once fixed, at length that faulters ; 
And of Immutability that alters 39 ! 
Can Bedlam match absurdities like these, 
Or make the Almighty " cast nativities" 40 ? 
Such are the dogmas of our learned clerk ; 
Sworn foe to mystery, yet sublimely dark ; 
Who from all check of rule or reason freed, 
Breaks Pegasus's neck and Priscian's head ; 
And floundering onward comes at length to be 
Engulfed in oceans of absurdity. 

There's one excuse, Agnostos, which thy case 
Admits of, and it here. shall find a place : 
Thy head is weak, thy heart, I trust, not bad ; 
Much something, if not learning, makes thee mad. 
Thou never couldst have writ in such a strain, 
If Metaphysics had not turned thy brain. 
The fountain of thy thoughts hath boiled and bubbled, 
Like that famed pool at certain seasons troubled ; 
Save that no healing influence attends, 
No angel to produce the effect descends. 
Some " hideous goblin" still attends on thee, 
Which no ones eye besides thine own can see 41 : 
Some "damned sprite" is to thy fancy shewn, 
Harrowing thy feelings up and thine alone 42 , 
For ever brooding o'er thy lonely study, 
Making thy best conceptions foul and muddy. 
Alas ! thy book displays no lucid " order," 
But senseless ravings that on frenzy border : 
The Sybil's fury rushes on thy mind 43 
At times, while to their cost thy readers find 



10 

The boasted product of thy sage delusion., 
Like molten images — wind and confusion. 

And couldst thou then expect by means like these, 
The wreath of immortality to seize ? 
Couldst thou suppose that thy bewildering page 
Would charm and influence a future age ? 
Or didst thou dream that late posterity 
Would take their creed and sentiments from thee 44 ? 
Where are the " numbers vast" that were to raise 
The shouts of censure, or the strains of praise 45 ? 
No sign from heaven, no mighty change on earth, 
Announced thy book, or followed from its birth ! 
Instead of being hailed a second Luther 46 , 
The mighty champion of oppressed Truth, or 
Assigned a place with Newton, Locke, or Bacon ; 
Thou for a sucking Antichrist wert taken ! 
Nor hast thou been, with all thy boasting, able 
To save thy infant, frail, aspiring Babel : 
But it is fit that he who sows the wind, 
As his sole harvest should the whirlwind find. 

Of pride and rashness see the bitter fruit ! 
One point indeed is proved beyond dispute ; 
One truth, at least, our " credence'* may receive. 
Foreknowledge was not thy prerogative ! 
Polemic warfare else thou hadst not waged, 
Nor in the cause of error been engaged ; 
Unscathed, uninjured, thou hadst passed along, 
Nor seen thy name thus gibbeted in song. 
Well, learn at least a lesson from the past, 
If but a grain of common sense thou hast. 
At Wisdom's fountain thou mayst freely drink ; 
But burn at once thy pen, and spill thy ink ; — 
A fit libation to the Shades of Night, 
The patrons that impelled thee first to write. 
But if an author thou art doomed to be, 
Lend me thy ears ; — this council is for thee. 
Let not thy tablets pure again be soiled 
With rank, luxuriant metaphors run wild : 
Thy freakish fancy's wantonness restrain, 
And hold thy Pegasus with tighter rein : 
That Pegasus which is, without dispute, 
A somewhat headstrong and eccentric brute 47 . 
Seek not to take the unwary in those " snares 
Of argument" which Heresy prepares ; 
Lay not thy "trap " again to catch applause ; 
Nor bait with sophistry its gaping " jaws 4S ." 



11 



Distrust thyself; — let Scripture be thy guide, 

And modesty in all thy thoughts preside : 

Ask of thy sires, and those who went before, 

The mighty and the gifted minds of yore : 

Think not that all mankind were in the dark, 

Until thou lightedst up thy feeble spark : 

Presumption, rashness, affectation shun, 

Nor hold thy taper up to light the sun. 

Let this conviction on thy spirit dwell ; 

God still remains The Great Unsearchable ! 

Think not thy erring reason can supply 

A line with which to sound Infinity 49 : 

Let not thy ignorance expect to find 

Itself the standard of the All -perfect Mind : 

Nor e'er presume again to make Thy Nescience 

An argument against The Almighty's Prescience 50 . 




AYXftdX; JITEPOEI Z.j 



ILLUSTKATIVE NOTES. 



1 " We ought not to regard it as any degradation to the character of 
Omniscience to maintain that the Deity does not already know every 
thing which will hereafter be known." — Inquiry into the Popular Notion, 
8rc. p. 118. 

2 "Only let these intelligible and self-evident principles, &c, and all 
ignorance and error will quickly vanish away.*' — Letter to Dr. B. p. 59. 

3 " The deep and dark entrenchments of religious mystery." — "The 
sacred, or rather suspicious, halo of mystery." — "The contemptible nos- 
trum of religious mystery is beginning to be suspected, and the imposi- 
tion and fraud will, ere long, be universally detected." — Inquiry, p. 73. 
Letter, p. 52, &c. 

4 "I must maintain the competency of the human mind, in every 
case, where it actually comprehends the meaning of any proposition, to 
decide and determine whether such proposition be true or false. — Inquiry, 
p. 34. 

5 " Regard with a distrustful shyness every interpretation of the 
Scriptures, that will not easily quadrate with the dictates of reason." — 
p. 46. 

6 " O implicit faith ! O pious credulity !"&c. — p. 127. 

7 " Revelation itself must of necessity owe all its authority to the con- 
victions which it is adapted to produce on the human mind." — p. 33. "We 
can never be obliged to receive any proposition for truth, except on the 
ground of a rational conviction." — p. 36. 

8 "What may not any person bring himself to believe, while he will 
regard the Christian faith as demanding an implicit credence ! W r hen a 
human being is under such a prostration of intellect, §~c." — p. 56. 

9 " We neither can nor ought," says Socinus, "to be brought by the 
plain words of the Holy Spirit himself to admit anything which is con- 
trary to nature." — See Douglas on Errors, p. 179. 

10 "In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting 
upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above 
it stood the seraphim : each one had six wings ; with twain he covered 
his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly." 
&c. — Isaiah, vi. 1 — 3. 

"The demons (ra Satfiovia) also believe and tremble." — James, ii. 19. 

11 Of the person who yields implicit credence to the Christian faith, 
our author says, "He spreads the wings of his unfettered fancy infinitely 
beyond the limits of all possible existence, &c. He will always despise 
those crawlers upon earth that will thrust forward the proboscis of com- 
mon sense, and put forth the feelers of rational investigation." — Inquiry, 
p. 56. 

12 "The knowledge of the Deity .... must be capable of perpetual 
accession." — p. 82. 

13 "The opinion that the ancient prophets do actually represent the 
events which they predict, as being certain in their issue, without involv- 



13 

ing a necessary and infallible causation, is nothing less than a gross and 
palpable contradiction." — p. 45. 

14 "The answer which was returned to David's inquiry (1 Samuel 
xxiii. 11), like many other predictions contained in the Scriptures, must 
be regarded as the opinion or judgment of God upon the case, and not as 
a piece of information, &c. The opinion or judgment of an infinite mind 
upon anything which in its own nature is a casualty, can never amount 
to an absolute certainty." — p. 140. 

15 "The success and triumph of the Gospel, and the end of the world, 
not the objects of a certain and eternal prescience." — The Argument pre- 
fixed to ch. xvi. p. 169. 

16 Our author charges the following as an absurdity on the advocates 
of Prescience : — " If the Prescience for which they contend does include 
the whole of the Divine conduct from everlasting to everlasting, then it 
must of necessity apply to all its parts, nor is it possible for any single 
act or volition to escape its unbounded cognizance ; it must be as post- 
scient of the first, and as prescient of the last, as scient of any inter- 
mediate occurrence :" and "then there is an end to eternity /" — p. 70. 

Of course, not willing to put an end to eternity, he must adopt that 
view, which in his opinion presents the only other alternative ; namely, 
that the Divine knowledge does not extend to the whole of the Divine 
conduct, and that there are some things which have escaped its cogni- 
zance, and of which it is now not " postscient !" 

J 7 Our author says that the object of revelation is "not so much the 
communication of instruction as to enforce obedience to the authority 
of God." — p. 122. And yet he has thrice repeated the assertion, that 
•■ God has revealed the whole of his purposes, in relation to the objects of 
Scripture prediction ; and the whole amount of his knovjledge, in relation 
to the same things." — pp. 172, 183, 191. To what, then, would he 
reduce the knowledge of God, " the sum total" of which may be com- 
municated, without "the communication of instruction !" 

18 Pope's Essay on Criticism, 1. 640. 

19 "Reader.— Why, Sir, a friend of mine the other day, very humour- 
ously observed, that you should have taken a comfortable seat among 
Milton's speculating devils ; who, 

' Apart sat on a hill retired, 
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high 
Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, 
Fix'd fate, free- will, foreknowledge absolute, 
And found no end in wandering mazes lost.' " 

" Author. — The reason why Milton's devils got set fast in their spe- 
culations was, they had adopted the poet's own theory, and were labouring 
to reconcile an absolute and eternal prescience with the freedom of moral 
actions. In such a case, if the whole Pandemonium, with Satan at their 
head, had entered into a discussion of that subject, it must have ended 
where it began." — Prefatory Dialogue to Inquiry, pp. ii, iii. 

20 "Scene. — The Hall of Arimanes, fyc. 

***** 

" A Spirit. What is here ? 

A mortal ! — Thou most rash and fatal wretch ! 

***** 

" A Spirit. — He is convulsed. — This is to be a mortal, 

And seek the things beyond mortality. 
"Another Spirit. — Had he been one of us, he would have made 

An awful Spirit." — Manfred, Act ii. sc. iv. 

21 The scripture doctrine of a rectoral prescience in the government 
of the world, and the popular notion of an unoriginated and eternal pre- 
science, are like Bozer and Senah ; on the one are encamped the uncir- 



14 

cumcised Philistines, and on the other, the army of the living God." — 
Inquiry, p. 129. 

22 u Reader. — And do you mean to say that the advocates of the 
Christian doctrine of foreknowledge don't heartily believe in the truth of 
that doctrine 1 

"Author — I can assure you, my good Sir, that you have exactly hit 
my meaning.' ' — Preface, p. x. 

23 "It is like a polar and perpetual winter, where there is neither 
vegetation or animal life. . . . Finally, the doctrine of eternal prescience 
is as barren of mental deduction, as of moral and religious inducement. 
It has no relation whatever to any art or science, or any branch of liter- 
ature; it presents no field for the luxuriations of fancy, or the sportive 
sallies of wit and humour. Here are no profundities for the soundings of 
investigation, nor are there any data for the calculations of chance, or the 
arithmetical process of numbers. The subject does not contain a single 
atom of material for the employment of the synthetical or analytical 
powers of the human mind." — pp. 94, 95: 

24 '* The hypostasis of things is at present an impenetrable mystery to 
the human mind, and will remain such, in all probability, world without 
end." — p. 32, So, then, Prescience is not the only subject that is in- 
volved in " the suspicious halo of mystery ;" and our author is obliged 
to " shield his ignorance under the pretended mystery of the subject." — 
p. 53. 

25 << The popular notion is one that would imply a. prescience that equally 
applies to all the past, and the present, and the future, of an unoriginated 
and unlimited duration." — p. 21. This is a novel idea, rather than "a 
popular notion ;" and its originality, none, I presume, will dispute. In 
another place, our author, with equal felicity, describes " Prescience'* as 
being " postscient" and " scient," as well as "prescient !" — p. 70. 

26 u An eternal now ? What is the meaning of now, or present time ? 
A mere chronological point, an indivisible quantity of duration. The term 
now cannot apply to any measurable quantity of duration, and much less 
to any immeasurable quantity of duration." — p. 99. In this luminous pas- 
sage, we are told that now is a quantity of duration ; and secondly, that 
it is neither a measurable, nor an immeasurable quantity ! In the next 
paragraph but one, we are told that "space is measurable, and so is 
duration ; that is to say, all finite quantities are measurable, both of 
the one and of the other." — p. 100. Since then, according to our author, 
"the term now cannot apply to any measurable quantity of duration;" 
and " all finite quantities of duration are measurable,' 'the term now must 
apply to an infinite quantity of duration. Quod NON erat demonstran- 
dum. A proposition just the reverse of that which was to have been 
proved. 

2 ? Extremes frequently meet. Our author conceived his theory to be 
the only antidote to Calvinistic predestination ; and yet both systems are 
based on the same assumption ; namely, that nothing can be foreseen that is 
not ordained. " Decretum quidem horribile, fateor : inficiari tamen nemo 
poterit quia prsesciverit Deus quern exitum esset habiturus homo ante- 
quam ipsum conderet, et ideo praesciverit quia decreto suo sic ordinarat." 
— Calvin, Institutes, lib. 3, c. 23, sec. 7. Thus our author says: "I 
can readily receive the doctrine of prescience as a consequence, because 
I can easily perceive that if God has formed certain determinations, and 
has secured the issue by an effectual causation, the issue must become 
thereby an object of a certain prescience. 

u I can receive the doctrine of prescience, as being evidence a posteriori, 
because I can perceive that a certain anticipation must be supported by an 
effectual causation." — Inquiry, p. 24. 



15 

28 "These are the utmost limits of possibility, and beyond these limits 
it is not possible for any intellect to travel." — p. 79. And yet in another 
place we are told, that the believer in Prescience " spreads the wings of 
his unfettered fancy infinitely beyond the limits of all possible existence." 
—p. 56. 

29 «« These obvious and numerous discrepancies, between abstract pos- 
sibilities and actual existence, open the door for the admission of an innu- 
merable swarm of contingencies of every species, which flit through 
every postern of the human intellect, buzz along all the avenues to the 
heart, crowd the great thoroughfare of human life, and darken the whole 
hemisphere of the moral world in their ceaseless and portentious flight." 
— p. 5i. 

30 «« No man can rationally believe that any issue which God himself 
has constituted contingent in re, can be certain to his own anticipations." 
p. 47. 

3i " Abstract Possibility must have definable bounds, and immu- 
table limits " — p. 48. " It may be asked whether the limits of possibi- 
lity are not wider than those of actual existence, and whether the know- 
ledge of God does not embrace the whole empire of possible existence ? 
I answer, it is undoubtedly possible for many things to exist which are 
not at present in actual being; (astonishing discovery!) and that the 
future and actual existence of such things may be, possibly, the objects of 
anticipation to the Infinite Mind." — pp. 79, 80. (Important informa- 
tion !) 

32 " Contingencies are identified with all moral agency, whether 
created or uncreated, and every attempt to subject them to the rules of a 
rigid certainty, would be nothing better than an outrage on . . liberty, and 
a libel on the government, &c They refuse to submit themselves to the autho- 
rity of a rule, or the process of measurement : they shrink from the touch 
and vanish from the sight ; they are ever changing in their forms ; they are 
ever flitting on the wing ; they ride on the fiery pegasus of a lawless 
will; they are created by every excitement of our passions, and are flung 
in myriads from every scintillation of the human fancy.' 1 — p. 53. " See 
them stretch themselves out into all their immeasurable amplitude, and 
pursue their aerial way along an infinite continuity of beings ; as wide as 
from the margin of absolute certainty and actual existence, quite to the 
verge of absolute impossibility ; and commencing their flight with the 
duration of the Divine existence, and continuing their course from ever- 
lasting to everlasting !" — pp. 51, 52. 

33 There are, according to our author, several Possibilities, who, like the 
Popes and Anti-Popes of the Romish Church, during the Great Schism, 
contend with each other for dominion. There are negative Possibilities, 
and there are positive Possibilities ; and these, like the sons of a Turkish 
Sultan, are " equally capable of being'' — crowned or hanged. They 
carry on an internecine war among themselves ; contending till Victory, 
declaring herself on one side or the other, "shall render one of these 
possibilities an everlasting reality, and annihilate the other possibility for 
ever and ever." — p. 52. 

34 << All abstract possibilities are hypothetically eternal.'" — p. 50. 

35 « "For bv the actual transpiration of the positive possibility, the nega- 
tion thereof has been actually annihilated /" — p. 51. 

36 " In receiving the doctrine of an Infinite Prescience, I must believe 
that it is not possible for the knowledge of the Deity to receive any ac- 
cession in quantity, world without end. I must believe that the actual 
knowledge of the Deity is not capable of being enriched by the addition 
of one single perception, either from his own future conduct or that of 
his creatures." — p. 23. 



16 

37 " All knowledge in God must be a personal acquisition." — p. 32. 

st The knowledge of the human heart by the Deity, like his knowledge 
of all other things, except the hypostasis of his own being, must be, of 
necessity, a personal acquirement. 1 ' — p. 82. 

38 ■■ The destruction of the temple involves the revocation of some of 
the most explicit promises and predictions of the Old Testament." — 
p. 163. To this 1 answer, the promises of continued prosperity, made 
to the Jews, were conditional ; and the consequences which would result 
from disobedience to the Divine law, and rejection of the Gospel, were 
foretold in the most explicit manner ; and these predictions are now in 
the course of fulfilment. Other predictions have reference to times and 
events yet future. " I say, then, hath God cast away his people ? (Mr) 
ykvoiTo) By no means . . . God hath not castaway his people whom he 
foreknew." " For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of 
this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness 
in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come 
in. And so all Israel shall be saved." — Rom. xi. 1, 2. 25, 26. 

39 "The repentance of Josiah became the means of altering the deter- 
mination which the Deity had previously formed." — p. 144. Mark, xiii. 20. 
"It appears also, from the words of our Lord, that a longer period for 
the continuance of this terrible visitation of Divine vengeance had been 
previously meditated, if not determined; and that afterwards, for the 
elect's sake, those days had been shortened." — p. 174. 

40 « < If the Deity could foresee with certainty the final issue of human 
life, and upon discovering that any creature, if created, would be cer- 
tainly and eternally miserable, and yet he could find no inducement, either 
to cast his nativity, or interpose between him and a certain and inevitable 
destruction, what would we think," &c. — p. 71. 

4i " Let us try the effect of this solid and irrefragable argument on the 
doctrine of eternal prescience, and we shall prostrate that hideous mon- 
ster at a single blow " — p. 67. " But some few intrepid spirits have had 
the courage to turn upon the fearful goblin of eternal prescience ; and he 
has already commenced his retreat." — p. 84. 

42 «* Never did ghost or goblin damned present half so hideous a spectre 
to the eye of superstitious credulity, as this horrible doctrine would do 
to the pious feelings of the religious world." — p. 92. 

4 3 I shall here present my reader with Virgil's description of the 
Cumeean Sybil, newly translated : — 

" Hue ubi delatus Cumceam accesseris urbem, $c." 
" Arrived at Cumae, and the sacred shores 
Where, mid the woods, the lake Avernus roars, 
The raging prophetess you will behold ; 
In her deep cave doth she the fates unfold : 
To leaves the virgin then commits each note 
And name ; in order ranging what she wrote ; 
And in her cave secluded, leaves them there. 
Unmoved they lie, but when a breath of air, 
From the revolving hinge and door ajar, 
Blows on the tender leaves they fly afar : 
Nor does she seek to gather or restore 
Those scattered lines, or join them as before ; 
And they who came to ask advice, retreat 
Uncounselled thence, and hate the Sibyl's seat." 

jEneid, lib. iii, 1. 441-452. 
" At Phcebi nondum patiens immanis in antro, #c." 
" But hear the prophetess within her cave, 
Of Phoebus yet impatient, madly rave ; 
Fain would her heaving breast the mighty load 
Shake off ; but so much more the incumbent god 
Fatigues her rabid mouth, her wild heart tames, 
And thus compelling, to his purpose frames." 

Ibid.lib. vi. 1. 77-80. 



17 

Abundance of passages might be quoted from the " Inquiry," to justify 
the allusion to u senseless ravings," " the Sybil's fury," and the sarcasm 
of the prophet, " Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing ; 
their molten images are wind and confusion." — Isaiah xli. 29. For in- 
stance, we read of " the first and last act, and the first and last volition 
of the Deity." — p. 69. We are told that " the hideous chimera of pre- 
science usurps the throne of the Almighty, and dashes his crown to the 
ground." — Ibid. The doctrine of prescience is at one time represented as 
implying the absence of all moral freedom in the Deity ; and at another, as 
rendering him, in theory, " infinitely more guilty than fallen Adam, or 
apostate Satan! 1 ' — pp. 66, 71. Did the scattered leaves, or the frantic 
ravings of the Cumsean Sybil, ever exceed this in incoherence ? 

44 " I do hope to check the progress of that doctrine on the minds of 
future generations.'' — Pref. p. xi. " I have the most sanguine and im- 
measurable expectations," &c. — Letter, p. 67. 

45 << Vulgar critics, in vast numbers, will probably raise the hue and 
cry after my performance ; but," &c. — Pref. xv. 

46 "How will you justify the conduct of Luther, Melancthon, or any 
of the Reformers, &c., if you condemn the part which J have acted," &c. 
— Pref. vii. 

4 7 "They ride on the fiery Pegasus of a lawless will." — p. 53. 

48 Of the doctrine of Prescience, the author of the '* Inquiry" says, 
" It is a species of theological vermin, that has infested the sanctuary, 
&c.j so that when any person has begun to rid the house of God of these 
nocturnal enemies, by entangling them in the snares of his arguments, or 
by committing them to the faithful jaws of a logical deduction, he has 
thereby excited the sympathies of the whole Christian world, and drawn 
down upon his luckless head," &c. — Pref. xi. 

4 9 When it is said that a doctrine, plainly taught in the sacred Scrip- 
tures, is contrary to reason, it is to our preconceived opinions, rather 
than to reason, that an appeal is made ; and it is well known that pre- 
conceived opinions are seldom of any value. That every truth must be 
agreeable to reason, in its highest and most extensive sense, is certain ; 
but that it should be agreeable to the preconceived opinions of every 
shallow thinker, is not to be supposed. The truths of Revelation are 
God's statement of facts; and, since truth is discovered, not by conjec- 
ture, but by a patient induction of facts, and by legitimate reasonings 
grounded on them, it is evident that the pretended appeal from Scriptural 
authority to reason, is merely an appeal from evidence to ignorance, and 
from truth to prejudice and error. 

50 This, after all, is the argument of the " Inquiry :" human ignorance 
against Divine knowledge. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such 
an one as thyself." — Ps. 1.21. Although we may find it difficult to con- 
ceive how foreknowledge can be possessed and exercised, without 
destroying the liberty of human actions, and the free agency of man- 
kind ; yet since the sacred Scriptures afford satisfactory evidence of the 
truth of this doctrine, we may rationally believe it; and all declamation 
against it, on the ground of its mysterious character, is merely an appeal 
from Infinite Wisdom to human Imbecility. It is an assumption that 
God can possess no perfection that we do not possess, or comprehend. 
The unhappy results of such a mode of procedure, experience has fully 
demonstrated; almost all theological errors having arisen, not from too 
great, but from too little deference being paid to the authority of scripture, 
and the decisions of God's Holy Word. 



' 



NOTE ON THE VIGNETTE. 



Our Vignette is an illustrative one. A bird, it is true, may not be 
capable of throwing much light on an abstruse subject ; yet it may occa- 
sionally hold up a lamp to Wisdom, or serve as a beacon to Philosophy. 
The Storm Petrel (Thalassidroma Pelagica), or "Mother Cary's Chicken," 
is an instance of that natural sagacity in anticipating the changes of the 
atmosphere, which certainly looks like 'Prescience, and has, not unfre- 
quently, been mistaken for something more. These birds are in ill 
repute with sailors, who account them the harbingers of storms ; and 
even accuse them of causing the foul weather which they prognosticate. 
The sea affords them both a home and a kitchen, their food being the 
grease which floats on its surface. When alarmed, the deprecating 
appeal which they offer, is as smooth and oily a rill as ever orator poured 
forth. To prevent this inopportune display, the usual mode of taking 
them is by (that antidote to eloquence) a noose drawn tightly round the 
neck. When dead, they are still of some use. Being nearly all fat and 
feathers, in some of the northern islands they are burned for fuel, in 
others they are converted into lamps or candles, by having a wick drawn 
through them, and set fire to ; a use of which, however sagacious, they 
can hardly be supposed to have been prescient, It is this tiny Pharos of 
the Faroese, that figures in our vignette, which is a correct represen- 
tation of the Storm Petrel, dead, prepared, and tipped with flame — a 
wicked bird, but a Winged Light. 



1 



APPENDIX : 

Containing a Demonstration of the Divine Prescience. 



** Equidem prsescientiam solam nullam inferre necessitatem creaturis, libenter 
concessero, tametsi non omnes assentiantur : sunt enim qui ipsam quoque causam 
rerum esse volunt." — Calvin, Instit. lib. 3, cap. 23, \ 6. 

" Dei scientiam aaternam immutabilem et infinitam esse, seque extendere ad 
omnia turn necessaria turn contingentia, ad omnia quae facit ipse vel mediate vel 
immediate, et quae fieri ab aliis permittit, mihi est persuasissimum." — xIrminius, 
De Prcedestinaiicne, %c. Opera, p. 491. 



I. — The doctrine of Divine Prescience may be proved, 1st, from the 
Infinite and absolute perfection of the Divine Nature, which must include 
Omniscience. If the knowledge of God were finite, his wisdom also must 
be finite, and then his power must be finite too ; unless we admit the 
absurd and incongruous idea of Infinite power associated with, and under 
the direction of, a merely finite wisdom. In short, to limit one attribute 
of the Deity, would be to limit all; it would be to make him & finite being, 
and thus conduct us to all the absurdities and horrors of Atheism; for 
a finite being is " No God." 

Some have strangely regarded Omniscience as the mere power or capa- 
city to know all things. This mistake arises from not properly distin- 
guishing between Omniscience and Omnipotence. . The possession of 
Omnipotence does not require that the Almighty should do all that he 
can do. Power may exist where it is not exercised. Its exercise is a 
matter of choice to its possessor. But boundless knowledge is something 
more than the power to know. To make Omniscience consist in a mere 
capacity, is to make it synonymous with actual and entire ignorance. 
And if, as stated by the author of the " Inquiry," &c, " all knowledge in 
God must be a personal acquisition ;" (p. 32.) then must the Divine 
Being have been originally ignorant of all things ! A supposition not to 
be admitted by any reasonable mind. The inference, therefore, is irresis- 
table; Omniscience is not the mere power to know all things, but the 
actual knowledge of all things, independent of choice and acquirement. 

The possession of Omniscience at any time by the Deity, must imply 
his eternal possession of that attribute. If the knowledge of God can 
admit of increase, it cannot be infinite now, nor can it ever reach infinity. 
He who is infinite in perfection possesses, and must always have pos- 
sessed, a knowledge of all things, the knowledge of which does not in- 
volve a real contradiction. 

The opponent of the doctrine of Prescience maintains that the posses- 
sion of foreknowledge, even by an Infinite Being, does involve such a 
contradiction. We maintain that it does not. That the manner in which 
the Divine Being knows the future is mysterious, we readily admit ; but 
if difficulty of conception in us amounted to contradiction in a doctrine, 
there would be an end to all knowledge and all truth. The difficulty in 
this case is not greater than that which attends the doctrines of the 
Divine Existence, Eternity, and Omnipresence, or the creation of the 
world out of nothing. We ourselves have the power of reviewing the 
past, and of anticipating the future. Our memory, I grant, is not so perfect 
a faculty as to preclude occasional forgettulness ; and our expectations 



20 

are liable to disappointment. Still our hopes and fears have relation to 
the future; and human sagacity may be so improved, as to anticipate 
events that are yet future, with a great degree of precision and accuracy. 
Superior beings may possess these, or similar faculties, in a still higher 
degree, and in a much greater state of perfection. And why may not 
the Infinite Being so far exceed his creatures in his knowledge both of 
the past and the future, as to be neither liable to forgetfulness in refer- 
ence to the one, nor of disappointment in regard to the other? 

Where, then, is the contradiction ? It is not asserted that God sees 
things future to be present, or things contingent to be necessary. Omni- 
science, so far from implying this, implies the contrary. It is impossible 
that God should know a thing to be existing, before it does exist. He 
must know present things as present; past events, as past; and future 
events, as future. In this there is no contradiction. It is equally im- 
possible that God should foresee things that are contingent, as necessary 
and inevitable. Such a supposition would involve the absurdity of ascrib- 
ing error to Omniscience. But when we say, that the Divine Being 
knows every possible course that any creature can take, and that he fore- 
sees the course which, out of these, that creature will take — the use he 
will make of liberty — the choice which he will voluntarily and freely adopt; 
there is, in this case, no contradiction either expressed or implied. 
Unless it can be shewn that such foreknowledge must alter the nature of 
the actions foreseen, and make those events necessary, which would 
otherwise have been voluntary and contingent. It is obvious, however, 
that knowledge alone, whether before or after, can have no influence in 
altering the character of the event to which it relates. This is admitted 
even by the author of the " Inquiry ," who says, " It is also agreed, that 
the knowledge of an event, cannot possibly possess any influence what- 
ever, in giving either existence or character to the event which it per* 
ceives." — p. 38. The foreknowledge, therefore of future and voluntary 
actions, involves no contradiction, and must be implied in that omnisci- 
ence which belongs to God. 

Those who oppose the doctrine of Divine Prescience, usually confound 
certainty with necessity ; but these are perfectly distinct. Certainty is 
the opposite of doubt ; necessity is the antithesis of contingency. Cer- 
tainty, or doubt, is in the mind ; necessity, or contingency, in the action 
or event contemplated. I may be certain of an event, although the 
agent, or agents, concerned in bringing it about are perfectly free. It is 
true that the certain knowledge of future events is, generally speaking, 
not the prerogative of man, though even his anticipations may have 
degrees of probability more or less approaching to certainty. The case, 
however, is different when we speak of the knowledge or anticipations of 
an Infinite and Omniscient Being. The certainty of the Divine fore- 
knowledge neither necessitates the action foreseen, nor implies its neces- 
sity ; but arises from the necessary perfection of the Divine nature, which 
is incapable of ignorance, error, or mistake. If, therefore, the existence 
of a free agent is iC abstractedly possible," the possession of foreknowledge 
by the Deity does not neutralize that possibility : and if there are " moral 
agents'* in the universe, that foreknowledge does not render them a whit 
the less free. 

II. — The doctrine of Divine Prescience is proved by the express testi- 
mony of Holy Writ. 

The cxxxix Psalm treats of the Omniscience and Omnipresence of 
Jehovah. One expression is, "Thou understandest my thought afar off," 
or "from afar. 1 ' — v. % The original word, pIPHD* signifies " distant" 
in any sense, and sometimes refers to distance of place ; as in 2 Samuel, 
xv, 17. But it can hardly be so intended here; for God "is not far 



21 

from every one of us ;" a truth which in this Psalm is emphatically incul- 
cated. The original word refers also to distance of time, whether past 
or future. " Hast thou not heard long ago, how 1 have done it," &c. — 
2 Kings, xix, 25. *'Thou hast spoken of thy servant's house for a great 
vrfiile to come." — 2 Sam. vii, 19. It is probably in this sense that the 
word is used here; and hence the old English translation of the Psalms, 
in the Book of Common Prayer, has — "Thou understandest my thoughts 
long before." The subject, indeed, is confessedly incomprehensible. 
" Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; it is high. I cannot attain 
unto it." — v. 6. " And in thy book all my members were written — when 
as yet there was none of them.'" — v. 16. 

In the Book of Proverbs, Wisdom says, " The Lord possessed me in the 
beginning of his ways, before his works of old. I was set up from ever- 
lasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was, &c. While as yet he 
had not made the earth. . . . Then was I with him. . . . Rejoicing in the 
habitable parts of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." 
— viii. 22—31. 

In Isaiah, the possession of foreknowledge is spoken of as one of 
those attributes, the display of which, in the fulfilment of prophecy, 
distinguishes the true God from idols and false gods. As the author of 
the '* Inquiry" has preferred quoting it in the translation of Bishop 
Louth, I shall do the same. 

" Draw near, produce your cause, saith Jehovah: 
Produce these your mighty powers, saith the King of Jacob. 
Let them approach, and tell us the things that shall happen : 
The things that shall first happen, what they are, let them tell us ; 
And we will consider them ; and we shall know the event. 
Or declare to us things to come hereafter : 
Tell us the things that will come to pass in later times ; 
Then shall we know that ye are Gods. 
Yea, do good or do evil ; 

Then shall we be struck at once with admiration and terror. 
* But, behold, ye are less than nothing ; 
And your operation is less than nought : 
Abhorred be the man that chooseth you ! 
" I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come ; 
From the rising of the sun he shall invoke my name : 
And he shall trample on princes, like the mortar ; 
Even as the potter treadeth down the clay. 

" Who hath declared this from the beginning, that we should know it ? 
And beforehand, that we might say, The prediction is true. 
There was not one that foretold it ; not one that declared it ; 
There was not one that heard your words : 
I first to Sion [give the word] Behold they are here ; 
And to Jerusalem I give the messenger of glad tidings. 
But I looked and there was no man ; 
Among the idols, and there was no one that gave warning, 
And I inquired of them, and [there was no one] that could return an 

answer. 
Behold, they are all of them vanity ; their works are nought : 
Mere wind and emptiness are their molten images." — xli. 21-29. 
"Iain Jehovah, that is my name ; 
And my glory will I not give to another ; 
Nor my praise to the graven images. 
The former predictions, lo! they are come to pass ; 
And new events I now declare : 

Before they spring forth, I make them known unto you.''* xlii. 8, 9. 
*■ Let all the nations be gathered together, 
And let the peoples be collected. 
Who among them will declare this ; 
And will tell us what first shall come to pass ? 
Let them produce their witnesses, that they may be justified ; 
Or let them hear in their turn, and say, This is true." xliii. 9, 10. 

In the above passages, foreknowledge is made the proof of Divinity, and 
is claimed by the Almighty, as his prerogative ; and the idols of the 
heathen are shewn to be false and fictitious, from their not possessing it. 



22 

That foreknowledge is often associated with agency, and that predictions 
are sometimes the result of the Divine purpose, is admitted ; but this is 
not invariably the case. God foretells what will happen, and what will 
spring jorth, as well as what he has purposed to do. And since even the 
Divine purposes are brought about by the instrumentality of free agents 
and their actions, the foresight of contingencies must be implied, even 
in those predictions which are founded on the Divine purpose. The 
heathen oracles were incapable of predicting future events with clearness 
and certainty, not only because they were ''destitute of an agency that 
was competent to the government of the world," but also because they 
were destitute of that knowledge of the future, which is included in Om- 
niscience, and is the sole prerogative of the Supreme and Eternal God. 
The heathen oracles, from the deep and gloomy recesses of some grove 
or cavern*, uttered responses that were only remarkable for their am- 
biguity; not so the Inspirer of the prophets: 

"I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; 
I have not said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain : 
I am Jehovah, who speak truth ; who give direct answers ; "(xlv, 19.) 
Not a mere "opinion or judgment on the case." And, finally, the 
sin of the heathen oracles consisted in lying and imposture, and their 
predictions were all fictitious and pretended; while the predictions of 
the ancient prophets were real — the dictates of the Spirit of Truth. 
" Assemble yourselves together, and come, &c. 

Who hath made this known long before, hath declared it from the first ? 
Is it not I, Jehovah, than whom there is no other God 1 
A God that uttereth truth, and granteth salvation, there is none beside me." 

Ibid, 20, 21. 

"Jesus knew from the beginning who believed not, and who it was 
that would betray him." — John vi, 64. Uapadcoaiov, rendered by our 
translators " should betray," is the future participle, implying not obliga- 
tion, but the simple futurity of the action. 

'* Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge 
of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.'' — 
Acts, ii, 23. This passage implies the fixed purpose of God to effect the 
redemption of mankind, and the absence of all constraint or over-ruling 
influence on those who put Christ to death. It was their voluntary act, 
or it could not have been said that they did it with wicked hands. That 
God foreknew the event with absolute certainty, implies that he fore- 
knew the means; for if the unbelief and cruelty of the Jews, though in 
themselves contingent, had not been the objects of a certain Prescience, 
the determinate counsel of Heaven might have failed of its effect. 

"For of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed, 
both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of 
Israel, were gathered together, for to do what thy hand and counsel 
determined before to be done." — Acts, iv, 27, 28. The redemption of 
the world, by the sufferings and death of Christ, is the event intended, 
and the sins of Herod, &c, the means by which it would be accomplished : 
and yet that these were not the result of appointment or necessity, the 
opponents of Prescience will admit. The purpose of Heaven might have 
been accomplished by other means ; but God,who foresaw their wickedness, 
permitted it to proceed to the fulfilment of that result which his wisdom 
and goodness had contemplated. " Surely the wrath of man shall praise 
thee : the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."— Ps. lxxvi, 10. 

" Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to 
the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called ; and whom he 
called, them he also justified ; and whom he justified, them he also glo- 

* See note 43. 



23 

rifled." — Rom. viii, 29, 30. Predestination is here spoken of, not as the 
ground or foundation of foreknowledge, but as its result. Those whom 
God foreknew as the believing and obedient followers of Christ, he ap- 
pointed to a glorious resurrection with him. By the opposers of Pre- 
science, as well as by the advocates of unconditional election and 
reprobation, the steps which conduct to the final result, are partially 
inverted, and Prescience made the consequence of Predestination. This 
is not more warrantable than it would be to invert the other gradations 
of the series, and make justification the consequence of glorification, &c. 

" God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew." Their repen- 
tance and return to God are necessary to their future restoration. But 
if their repentance and conversion were not the object of a certain 
prescience, their restoration at the latter day would not have been so 
definitely and positively foretold. — Rom. xi, 2, 25, 26. 

" Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through 
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of 
Jesus Christ. " — 1 Peter i, 2. The election here mentioned, however un- 
derstood, is the result of Prescience, not its cause. 

" Foreknown indeed, (Iiposyvu)ffiJikvov fikv) before the foundation of the 
world, but manifested in these last times for you." — 1 Pet. i, 20. If the 
redemption of mankind by Christ was foreknown and appointed before 
the foundation of the world, the necessity for that redemption must have 
been foreseen ; and this implies a foreknowledge of our first parents' fall*. 
III. — But the grand evidence of the doctrine of foreknowledge is 
afforded by the predictions of the Bible, compared with their fulfilment. 

Many of the events foretold, were the result of innumerable volitions 
of free agents. In some instances, no doubt, such events were the sub- 
jects of a Divine determination. Yet even these, unless brought about, 
as in the case of the deluge, by the immediate and irresistable power of 
God, to the exclusion of all human agency, must have been the result of 
actions and volitions which could not have been necessitated, and must 
have been foreseen. For if these volitions and actions of free agents 
had not been the objects of Divine foresight, the issue itself must have 
been uncertain and precarious. In short, there is no medium between 
these two alternatives ; either God is the only agent in the universe, and 
the fulfilment of prophecy has been the result of his immediate and 
irresistable interposition ; or the voluntary and unconstrained actions of 
moral agents have been the objects of the Divine foreknowledge. 

A bare enumeration of the principal predictions of the Old and New 
Testament, is all that the limits of this essay will allow. Prophecies 
concerning Noah's, Abraham's, IshmaePs, and Esau's posterity ; con- 
cerning the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, and the result of the mis- 
sion of Moses to Pharaoh. Prophecies of Balaam ; of Samuel concerning 
Saul ; of Elisha concerning Hazael ; of Isaiah concerning Sennacherib's 
death, and concerning Cyrus; of Daniel concerning the great monarchies ; 
and of the Old Testament generally, concerning the birth, actions, suffer- 
ings &c, of the Messiah ; of Moses, Daniel, Hosea, and our Saviour, 
concerning the fate of the Jewish nation ; and of St. Paul, and St. John, 
concerning the rise and character of the Anti- christian apostacy. 

The matters treated of in these predictions are so various and so multi- 
plied, they extend through so many ages, and affect so large a portion of 

* The author of the " Inquiry" has no other method of evading the force of 
this argument, than by contending that "the word before does not in reality 
imply a priority of occurrence," but •■ a subsequence of occurrence bordering on 
instantaneousness." In short, that "before" means after! And this he con- 
siders " a perfect synchronism," " an elegant hyperbole," " a perfect harmony 
of truth and meaning !"— pp. 132, 133. 



24 

mankind, that they argue a complete foreknowledge of the future, in that 
God who inspired the prophets to utter and to write them. And the 
events foretold are so evidently connected with the voluntary agency, and 
especially the crimes and wickedness of mankind, that this foreknowledge 
cannot be resolved into the Divine appointment or purpose, without 
making God the author of sin, and reducing man to a mere automaton. 
That person must be blinded by error and prejudice, who catf*read these 
predictions, and deny to the Author of them the power which they so 
remarkably display, of darting his glance through every future age ; ot 
knowing the things that shall come to pass, before they happen ; of de- 
claring the end from the beginning ; and of calling the things that are 
not, as though they were. 

IV. — In conclusion, I have no objection to try the doctrine of Divine 
Prescience, and that of its opponents, by a comparison of their utility. 
Although a doctrine is not to be rejected as untrue, because its use is not 
immediate and apparent ; yet I have no doubt that every true doctrine, 
and especially every doctrine of Holy Writ, will be found to have its use. 
That doctrine, however, must be not merely useless, but positively and 
highly injurious, which goes to expunge in theory an attribute of the 
Deity ; which so boldly arraigns the Divine conduct — which makes the 
success and ultimate spread of the gospel doubtful, and the end of the 
world, and the day of judgment, a matter hitherto undecided in the 
mind of God himself; which invalidates the two grand external evidences 
of Divine Revelation, miracles, and prophecy ; and betrays its advocates 
into so many blunders and absurdities. The doctrine of Divine Prescience, 
on the contrary, has a direct tendency to strengthen our faith in that 
Providence which governs the universe, and our confidence in that Being 
in whose hands are the issues of life and death. The displays of Pre- 
science contained in Holy Writ, not only afford one of the strongest 
proofs of its Divine original, but they have supplied the people of God, 
from age to age, with a never-failing subject of adoring wonder and 
amazement ; leading even the inspired apostle to exclaim, with devout 
humility, (Rom. xi, 33—36,) "O the depth of the riches both of the 
wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments, 
and his ways past finding out ! For who hath known the mind of the 
Lord ? Or who hath been his counsellor ? Or who hath first given to 
him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and 
through him, and to him, are all things ; to whom be glory for ever. 
Amen." 



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Lately Published, 

In a neat pocket volume, cloth ; price 3s. 6d. ; 

LYRA BRITANNICA 

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SELECT BEAUTIES OE MODEEN ENGLISH POETBY. 

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BY THE KEV. J. W. THOMAS. 

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copious illustrative and confirmatory Notes, chiefly taken from Ro- 
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LONDON : 
MASON, 14, CITY ROAD; AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW. 



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